Learning from the economic and the pandemic crisis. Health system resilience in Greece: from Skylla to Charibdis

In the context of the wider economic crisis during the 2010s, the Greek health care system came under pressure and reforming it was clearly a priority imposed by the Troika. The question raised, which the present chapter seeks to investigate, is to what extent the Greek health care system had the ability to respond to the economic shock. The concept of resilience is the main theoretical approach implemented. Accepting that resilience is a dynamic procedure, an overview of the economic, social and political effects of the financial crisis and austerity policies is provided, in order to understand the challenges posed to the health system by the wider socioeconomic environment. Subsequently, we assess the resilience of the Greek health care system and we make some preliminary assumptions concerning the extent to which the degree of resilience to the financial shock affected the ability of the health system to respond to the emergence of COVID-19.